The Blackmailed Bride Falling in Love with a Criminal Boss Exclusive fullmovie

PixelPicks

Transcript

00:00:00I once read that the most dangerous thing a woman can do is save a man's life.

00:00:04I didn't believe it.

00:00:05I was 22, idealistic, and three semesters short of a nursing degree.

00:00:10When I found a man bleeding out in an alley behind a fast food restaurant,

00:00:14I didn't think about danger.

00:00:15I just pressed my hands to the wound.

00:00:18I didn't know his name.

00:00:19I didn't know that the blood soaking through my uniform

00:00:22belonged to the most feared cartel boss on the East Coast.

00:00:25I didn't know that behind those dark half-conscious eyes

00:00:27was a man who would remember everything I did.

00:00:30Every word, every touch, every desperate instruction I gave him in the dark.

00:00:34I didn't know he would come back for me.

00:00:36Three months later, a man named Emilio Reyes walked into my life

00:00:40and told me I had inherited a fortune from my late aunt on one condition.

00:00:44Marriage. To him. Immediately.

00:00:47No. I said no.

00:00:49He smiled like I hadn't spoken at all.

00:00:51This is the story of how I married a criminal.

00:00:54How I hated him, feared him,

00:00:56and somewhere in the middle of all the lies he built our life on

00:01:00fell desperately, irreversibly in love with him.

00:01:03I want to tell you I fought it.

00:01:05I want to tell you I was smarter than this.

00:01:06But the truth is,

00:01:08the moment I pressed my hands to his chest in that alley,

00:01:11I was already his.

00:01:13I just didn't know it yet.

00:01:15The alley behind the shop smells like grease and rain.

00:01:19I take the trash out at midnight

00:01:22because Miguel never does

00:01:23and I'm too tired to fight about it.

00:01:29That's when I hear it.

00:01:31A shuffle.

00:01:32A grunt.

00:01:34The unmistakable sound of someone about to do something terrible.

00:01:37I peek my head out.

00:01:40First mistake of the night.

00:01:44Hello?

00:01:47New men immediately pin me against the wall.

00:01:50I open my mouth to scream.

00:01:52Someone beats me to it.

00:01:53He steps out of the dark like he owns it.

00:01:55Tall, jaw tight.

00:01:57One hand pressed to his ribs.

00:01:59He's bleeding.

00:02:01I can see it soaking through his shirt

00:02:03in a dark, spreading stain.

00:02:05He shouldn't be standing.

00:02:06Standing anyway.

00:02:07Let her go.

00:02:11The men charge.

00:02:12He moves.

00:02:13Fast, precise, brutal.

00:02:17And it's over in seconds.

00:02:19One man clutches his arm, screaming.

00:02:22The other is already gone.

00:02:26And then the stranger folds like paper,

00:02:29putting the wet pavement before I can catch him.

00:02:33I drag him, him inside.

00:02:35I don't know why.

00:02:40I'm a nursing school dropout with shaking hands

00:02:43and no business saving anyone.

00:02:46But I press gauze to his chest

00:02:48and count his breaths

00:02:50and tell him to stay with me.

00:02:52And somewhere between one breath and the next,

00:02:55I start to believe he might actually listen.

00:02:57He opens his eyes, grabs my wrist hard enough to bruise.

00:03:02No one has ever seen me like this.

00:03:05You're dead.

00:03:07Stop moving or you'll bleed more.

00:03:09He lets go.

00:03:11He passes out.

00:03:14I keep working.

00:03:15By the time I come back with antibiotics,

00:03:18he's gone.

00:03:19The room is empty except for the bloody gons

00:03:22and the faint smell of something expensive,

00:03:25cologne, maybe, or power.

00:03:30I stand in the doorway

00:03:32and feel something I can't name settle into my chest.

00:03:38Hope you make it, stranger.

00:03:45The days pass.

00:03:47My life goes on.

00:03:49The midnight shifts blur into each other

00:03:52and I almost convince myself

00:03:54the whole thing was a fever dream.

00:03:57The blood.

00:03:58The alley.

00:03:59The man who threatened to kill me

00:04:01while I was saving his life.

00:04:03Almost.

00:04:06It isn't until three months later

00:04:09that I understand the mistake I made that night.

00:04:12Wasn't peeking my head out into that alley.

00:04:14It was pulling the stranger back from the edge.

00:04:18I'm wiping down the counter

00:04:19when his face fills the TV screen above the register.

00:04:25Emilio Reyes.

00:04:26East Coast Cartel King.

00:04:28Dangerous.

00:04:30Untouchable.

00:04:31The customers are whispering.

00:04:34The word monster drifts past my ear like smoke.

00:04:38I stare at the screen

00:04:39and the memory hits me like a cold wave.

00:04:42His hand locked around my wrist.

00:04:45Even through the blood loss.

00:04:48No one has ever seen me like this.

00:04:52You're dead.

00:04:56Shit.

00:04:57I set down the tray.

00:04:59I turn for the door.

00:05:00A black bag drops over my head.

00:05:03The last thing I hear before the world goes dark.

00:05:06You're coming with us.

00:05:13They take the bag off in a room

00:05:15that costs more than my entire life.

00:05:17He's standing by the window with his back to me

00:05:19and even from behind I can feel the weight of him.

00:05:23The absolute, unharried certainty of a man

00:05:26who has never once been told no.

00:05:29He turns around slowly

00:05:31like he has all the time in the world.

00:05:34Like I'm not hyperventilating in the middle of his Persian rug.

00:05:37He looks at me the way you look at something you already own.

00:05:40Hello, wife.

00:05:42Wife?

00:05:43He pulls out a file and slides it across the desk.

00:05:47Leticia Vierito, my aunt, who I barely knew,

00:05:51who apparently knew him very well.

00:05:52She raised him.

00:05:53He called her family.

00:05:55And when she died,

00:05:56she left everything to me.

00:05:59One million dollars.

00:06:01I stare at the number until the zeros blur.

00:06:06You're handing out one million dollars to me?

00:06:08Just like this?

00:06:10Of course not.

00:06:11Your inheritance comes with a condition.

00:06:14Marry me for one year.

00:06:16Part of me wants to laugh.

00:06:17The part that's been eating ramen for six months.

00:06:20Drowning in debt.

00:06:21Too proud to ask for help.

00:06:23One million dollars.

00:06:24I could breathe again.

00:06:26I could actually breathe.

00:06:28But then, the other part of me kepts up.

00:06:31The part that recognizes his face from every news broadcast.

00:06:34Every whispered warning.

00:06:36Every story that ends badly.

00:06:38Marry a mafia king with a promise of one million dollars?

00:06:41Is this Watt Mac novel really happening to me?

00:06:44Me?

00:06:44I set down the file.

00:06:47What do you get out of this?

00:06:49I'm a nobody.

00:06:51He steps closer.

00:06:53Close enough that I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.

00:06:55And I hate that I do it.

00:06:59You're not a nobody.

00:07:02Don't ever say that again.

00:07:06He says it quietly.

00:07:08Too quietly.

00:07:09Too gently.

00:07:10Like he means it.

00:07:11Like he's been thinking about it.

00:07:13And the words land somewhere soft and unprotected.

00:07:17Before I can get my guard back up.

00:07:20I don't know what to do with them.

00:07:23So I look away, down at the floor.

00:07:25And that's when I see it.

00:07:26A dark stain in the carpet.

00:07:28Old and brown at the edges.

00:07:30Blood.

00:07:31Someone's blood.

00:07:32Soaked into the fibers and never fully cleaned away.

00:07:35The word yes dies in my throat.

00:07:38No.

00:07:40Then you just made your first mistake as my future wife.

00:07:48His hand moves toward his hip.

00:07:50My survival instincts shoot up.

00:07:54Wait.

00:07:55I didn't mean no.

00:07:57I just, I need time.

00:07:58To think.

00:08:01I'm allowed to think, right?

00:08:03A beat.

00:08:03His hand stills.

00:08:05Of course.

00:08:06I try the door.

00:08:10Locked.

00:08:11Of course it's locked.

00:08:13My heart hammers against my ribs as his foot steps cross the room behind me.

00:08:17Quiet.

00:08:18Unhurried.

00:08:19Inevitable.

00:08:21His hand covers mine on the knob.

00:08:23His mouth is close enough to my ear that I feel the warmth of his breath.

00:08:26And every rational thought I have dissolves.

00:08:29I'm a king, Mia.

00:08:32Don't even think about running.

00:08:35I'll see you at the altar.

00:08:37He twists the knob.

00:08:39The door swings open.

00:08:40I don't walk out.

00:08:41I flee.

00:08:43I nearly collide with a man in the hallway.

00:08:45Younger than Emilio.

00:08:47Easier to read.

00:08:47With a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

00:08:50He watches me scramble past and says nothing.

00:08:53Behind me, I hear him say something to Emilio in a low voice.

00:08:56I don't stop to listen.

00:08:58Back in my apartment, Serena screams at me through the phone for ten solid minutes.

00:09:02I hold it away from my ear and stare at the ceiling.

00:09:05You should have left him bleeding in that alley.

00:09:08I know.

00:09:08He's a monster.

00:09:09My food's here.

00:09:11Talk later.

00:09:15I open the door expecting delivery.

00:09:18A gun barrel.

00:09:19Cold metal.

00:09:20Pointed at my face.

00:09:22Behind it, a man I've never seen before.

00:09:25Silver-haired and soft-voiced.

00:09:27With the calm of someone who has done terrible things for a very long time.

00:09:31And at his feet, crumbled, bleeding, reaching for my ankle.

00:09:35A boy I've never met.

00:09:37But somehow, recognizing the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose.

00:09:43The stranger smiles.

00:09:45Mia Espinosa.

00:09:48We need to talk.

00:09:52His name is Franco Palacio.

00:09:55I am Franco.

00:09:56He says it like a title.

00:09:57Like something I should already know and fear.

00:10:00He says it while one of his men pins my arms behind me.

00:10:03And another kicks the boy hard enough to crack ribs.

00:10:07Tomas.

00:10:08Your cousin.

00:10:10Leticia's only son.

00:10:11I didn't even know I had a cousin.

00:10:16I'm Emilio Reyes' worst nightmare.

00:10:18I don't know, Emilio.

00:10:21That's a lie.

00:10:22Of course I lied.

00:10:24I would say anything to get out of this.

00:10:28This gangster war I've somehow wandered into.

00:10:31Dragging a cousin I've never met along with me.

00:10:35Maybe I really shouldn't have saved Emilio that night.

00:10:41He ignores me and crouches beside Tomas, dragging a knife down his cheek so slowly, so precisely,

00:10:48that the line of red it draws looks almost surgical.

00:10:53Tomas makes a sound I'll hear in my sleep for years.

00:10:55You're gonna marry Emilio Reyes.

00:10:57You're gonna give him an heir.

00:11:03And that child will be born under my command.

00:11:07What?

00:11:09A wife.

00:11:10A baby.

00:11:11That's all it takes to ruin a man like him.

00:11:16You're gonna be my weapon, sweetheart.

00:11:19He stands, moves back to Tomas,

00:11:21and presses the flat of the blade against his eyelid.

00:11:24One month.

00:11:25Get pregnant.

00:11:30Or your cousin loses more than an eye.

00:11:34I can't breathe.

00:11:35I can't think.

00:11:36The room has shrunk to the size of that knife.

00:11:39That eye.

00:11:39That terrible, soft sound Tomas makes when the blade presses harder.

00:11:44Stop.

00:11:45Left eye.

00:11:48Or right.

00:11:49Stop!

00:11:50I'll do it!

00:11:51The blade lifts.

00:11:53Franco smiles, like I've given him a gift.

00:11:56Then the front door sweet or splinters off its hinges.

00:12:02Emilio doesn't come in like a rescue.

00:12:04He comes in like weather.

00:12:06Sudden, total, impossible to argue with.

00:12:08His men fan out behind him.

00:12:12Franco's men scatter.

00:12:13And then it's just the two of us.

00:12:15And Tomas is gone.

00:12:17Dragged out in the chaos.

00:12:19And I'm on the floor.

00:12:21With my knees pulled to my chest.

00:12:24And my whole body shaking so hard my teeth click together.

00:12:28I don't hear him cross the room.

00:12:30I just feel the air change.

00:12:32Mia.

00:12:33His voice is different.

00:12:35Softer than I've heard it.

00:12:36I look up.

00:12:37And something in his face does things I don't expect.

00:12:40It cracks.

00:12:42Just at the edges.

00:12:43Just for a second.

00:12:45I don't decide to move.

00:12:46I just do it.

00:12:48I throw myself at him.

00:12:52And his arms close around me before I can second guess it.

00:12:56And I press my face into his chest.

00:12:58And cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a little girl.

00:13:03Ugly and desperate and completely undignified.

00:13:08He holds me like he means it.

00:13:11He doesn't speak.

00:13:13Doesn't ask questions.

00:13:15He just keeps one hand on the back of my head.

00:13:17And breathes slowly.

00:13:19Steadily.

00:13:20Like he's trying to teach me how.

00:13:22And gradually my shaking slows.

00:13:25When I finally pull back his expression has closed again.

00:13:28But his eyes haven't.

00:13:30You're my woman, Mia.

00:13:33Your tears belong to me.

00:13:36I should have a response to that.

00:13:38I don't.

00:13:38I just look at him.

00:13:40And feel the words settle somewhere deep and permanent.

00:13:44Like a key turning in a lock I didn't know I had.

00:13:48He wipes my face with his thumb.

00:13:50Gentle.

00:13:51Careful.

00:13:52Like I'm something worth being careful with.

00:13:55I'm not your woman.

00:13:57I haven't agreed to anything yet.

00:14:01I know.

00:14:02We should talk.

00:14:04He says it quietly.

00:14:05He doesn't push.

00:14:06He just looks at me like he's already decided.

00:14:09And he's willing to wait.

00:14:10That might be the most frightening thing he's done yet.

00:14:15The next morning, we sit on opposite sides of a conference table with a contract between us, sick enough to

00:14:21stop a bullet.

00:14:22Our marriage contract.

00:14:25Read it.

00:14:28Terms and conditions.

00:14:31We'll discuss today.

00:14:37I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.

00:14:41I try very hard to absorb what I'm about to sign my life onto.

00:14:45But not a single word makes it to my brain.

00:14:52Instead, Franco's voice echoes like a curse on a loop.

00:14:56Marry Emilio.

00:14:57Baby.

00:14:59One month.

00:15:02My weapon.

00:15:04To save a cousin I barely know in a gangster war I never asked to be part of?

00:15:08I'm going to lie to a cartel king sitting right across from me, expecting a real marriage.

00:15:15Of course I'll sign this contract.

00:15:17But it's not my choice.

00:15:19It was never my choice.

00:15:21I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation.

00:15:25And I have to pretend otherwise.

00:15:27Perfectly.

00:15:28Or Thomas pays for it.

00:15:30Everything okay?

00:15:34I startle.

00:15:35He's watching me.

00:15:37Of course he's watching me.

00:15:39Men like him watch everything.

00:15:44I need to smooth this over.

00:15:46For my cousin.

00:15:49The contract doesn't mention sleeping arrangements.

00:15:53He goes very still.

00:15:55Sleeping arrangements.

00:16:00We'd be married.

00:16:04It would be natural that we...

00:16:06The chair scrapes back.

00:16:08He's in front of me in two steps.

00:16:11Leaning over the table.

00:16:12With both hands.

00:16:14Planted on either side of the contract.

00:16:16Close enough that I can smell his cologne.

00:16:18And feel the warmth radiating off his skin.

00:16:21It's natural we fuck.

00:16:25My breath stops.

00:16:30Do you want me to fuck you?

00:16:33There is no good answer to that question.

00:16:40There is only the truth.

00:16:42Yes.

00:16:43Obviously.

00:16:44Embarrassingly.

00:16:46Inconveniently yes.

00:16:47And the reason behind it.

00:16:49Which I can never tell him.

00:16:54That's what husbands and wives do.

00:16:58We're not real husband and wife.

00:17:00This is a contract.

00:17:04You're attractive and rich.

00:17:07Any woman would want you.

00:17:12He tilts his head.

00:17:14Something dangerous flickering in his eyes.

00:17:17You think I'm attractive?

00:17:22Yes.

00:17:23Are you lying to me?

00:17:28No.

00:17:30I'm not lying.

00:17:31That's the problem.

00:17:34I'm not lying at all and he can see it.

00:17:37And the slow curve of his mouth tells me he's been able to see it this whole time.

00:17:43He lifts me onto the table in one motion.

00:17:45I gasp.

00:17:47Not in fear, which would make sense, in something that runs hotter than fear.

00:17:52He nudges my knees apart.

00:17:54Not roughly, just firmly, with the uncurried confidence of a man who already knows the answer.

00:18:04You can lie with words, not with your body.

00:18:08His hand slides up my inner thigh.

00:18:14Tell me you want me.

00:18:16Tell me it's not just the contract.

00:18:18And God help me, I do.

00:18:26She's sitting on my conference table with her knees apart.

00:18:30And her eyes blown wide.

00:18:33And I have never wanted to ruin someone so completely in my life.

00:18:39I pull my hand back slowly, letting her watch her own wetness dripping on my fingers.

00:18:46Her breath stutters.

00:18:49Is this for me?

00:18:54Do I get you this wet just by talking to you?

00:19:01Yes.

00:19:02Her voice comes out wrecked and small and honest.

00:19:06And it pulls me back from the edge of something I can't afford.

00:19:11That voice.

00:19:12That lying, beautiful voice.

00:19:15I know something happened between her and Franco.

00:19:18I've known since the moment I walked into her apartment.

00:19:21And found her on the floor.

00:19:23Because I wasn't there to rescue her.

00:19:25I was there to make her talk.

00:19:28Franco's men were already scattering when I kicked the door in.

00:19:32I had my gun up, finger on the trigger.

00:19:35Franco in my sights.

00:19:37And then I saw her.

00:19:39I curled on the floor, shaking.

00:19:42Small in a way that hit me somewhere, I don't let things hit me.

00:19:46I lowered the gun.

00:19:47I crossed the room.

00:19:50And the second she threw herself against my chest, I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.

00:20:00The will I showed her, I fabricated it.

00:20:04My nanny, Letricia, was a kind woman, not a wealthy one.

00:20:10She didn't leave a million dollars.

00:20:13I forged every page.

00:20:15I needed a reason to keep Mia close.

00:20:20Somewhere I could watch her.

00:20:22Pull the truth out of her slowly.

00:20:24But that day, with her crying in my arms,

00:20:28I stopped caring about the plan.

00:20:31I decided I had to have her.

00:20:34One way or another.

00:20:36I never expected the other way to involve this many lies.

00:20:39I hate lies.

00:20:44Mia.

00:20:46You have no idea I'm going to torture to truth out of you.

00:20:50I shove my hand back between her legs.

00:20:54Fingers flying to my shoulders.

00:20:58Tell me to stop if you don't want this.

00:21:04She doesn't stop me.

00:21:06Good.

00:21:07I push her panties aside and press one finger inside her.

00:21:11She moans, hips rolling forward instinctually.

00:21:16Hands gripping my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.

00:21:23Emilio.

00:21:24God.

00:21:25My name in her mouth like that.

00:21:29I add a second finger and move faster.

00:21:32Watching her come undone.

00:21:34And I am aching with how much I want her.

00:21:38But I have a mission.

00:21:40I need her confession.

00:21:42If I handed you the inheritance right now,

00:21:45no strings, no cracks,

00:21:46would you still want me?

00:21:48Emilio.

00:21:49Answer me!

00:21:51Yes.

00:21:52More lies.

00:21:54Oh, you little liar.

00:21:56You have no idea what you just walked into.

00:22:01He stops.

00:22:02The absence of his touch is so sudden it punches the air out of me.

00:22:05I look at him, chest heaving, completely undone,

00:22:08and his face has already closed.

00:22:10Composed.

00:22:11Cool.

00:22:12Like none of it happened.

00:22:16You're hiding something from me.

00:22:18Bad girls don't get to come.

00:22:20Sign the contract.

00:22:22Diego will help you move in tomorrow.

00:22:23I sit on the edge of the conference table with his handkerchief in my hands

00:22:26and the ghost of his touch still burning under my skin.

00:22:30And I stare at the closed door

00:22:31and try to remember who I am and why I'm here.

00:22:35Stay focused, Mia.

00:22:37Toas.

00:22:37One month.

00:22:38That's all that matters.

00:22:40His mansion is the size of my entire neighborhood.

00:22:42I drag my suitcase through the front door

00:22:44and try not to look like I've never seen marble floors before.

00:22:46The staff lines up to greet me.

00:22:48I shake everyone's hand and smile until my face hurts.

00:22:50And somewhere in the middle of it, Emilio appears from a hallway

00:22:53and I make the mistake of asking if I'll be staying in his room.

00:22:55We don't sleep in the same room.

00:22:59He gives me a guest room with a bed too big for one person

00:23:02and curtains the color of champagne.

00:23:03He drops a ring box into my palm without ceremony or eye contact.

00:23:07Wear it in public.

00:23:08It fits perfectly.

00:23:10I don't know why that makes my chest ache.

00:23:11Why are you so cold today?

00:23:13I thought we...

00:23:13Do you know what I do to people who betray me?

00:23:15No.

00:23:16I kill them.

00:23:16Every single one.

00:23:18Betrayal doesn't exist in my world.

00:23:21Are you keeping something from me, Mia?

00:23:23Tell him.

00:23:23Just tell him.

00:23:24The words crowd my throat.

00:23:25Franco Tomas, the knife, the deadline.

00:23:28When I look up, Emilio is gone.

00:23:30I need to get pregnant.

00:23:32I need to do something.

00:23:38This will have to do.

00:23:42I carry a plate of cookies down the hall like an offering,

00:23:44which, honestly, is exactly what it is.

00:23:46This is the plan.

00:23:47This is the whole plan.

00:23:48I push open the study door.

00:23:50Fifteen men look up at me simultaneously.

00:23:52Leave.

00:23:53Not you.

00:23:58I stand there tugging the hem of my shorts down

00:24:00and trying to look like I haven't just made a catastrophic mistake.

00:24:03You didn't just bring me cookies dressed like this.

00:24:05I didn't know you were in a meeting.

00:24:06I'm half-mined to shoot every man who was just in this room.

00:24:08Please don't.

00:24:09What do I do to a bad girl who interrupts my meeting?

00:24:12Do I bend you over this desk and spank your pretty little ass?

00:24:14I shiver.

00:24:15I should not shiver.

00:24:16I shiver anyway.

00:24:16Or do I force you down on your knees and make you take my cock?

00:24:19Or you could take me.

00:24:21I can give you an air.

00:24:26No.

00:24:27No condoms.

00:24:29You're not on birth control.

00:24:30I know.

00:24:31Something shifts in his expression.

00:24:32The heat drains out of it,

00:24:33replaced by something colder and more careful.

00:24:35You want my baby.

00:24:36Why?

00:24:36Because your biggest enemy has my cousin

00:24:39and gave me a deadline and I have no other options

00:24:41and I'm terrified and I'm sorry.

00:24:43Because you're handsome and I'd really love to...

00:24:46Get out.

00:24:47What?

00:24:48Get out.

00:24:50I slide to the floor and stand there for one horrible second,

00:24:52completely exposed.

00:24:54The cookies, the shorts,

00:24:55the desperate transparent wanting of all of it

00:24:57and then I turn and walk out with whatever dignity I have left,

00:24:59which is not much.

00:25:01I need a new plan.

00:25:04Serena, can you meet me?

00:25:05I need to tell you everything.

00:25:07Outside my window,

00:25:08the city hums and glitters like it doesn't know anything is wrong.

00:25:10Like the world is perfectly ordinary

00:25:12and I haven't spent the last week tangled up in a cartel king

00:25:15who sees straight through every lie I tell,

00:25:17except the one that might get us both killed.

00:25:19What did I get myself into?

00:25:25Thank God.

00:25:26Are you okay?

00:25:27He didn't chain you up somewhere?

00:25:28He's not.

00:25:29No.

00:25:29No dungeons.

00:25:31I'm fine.

00:25:32You don't look fine.

00:25:33She's right.

00:25:34I don't feel fine.

00:25:35I feel like I'm playing three different chess games at once

00:25:37and losing all of them.

00:25:38I start to tell her about Franco,

00:25:39about Tomas,

00:25:40about the deadline.

00:25:41But before I can get past the first sentence...

00:25:43Are you okay?

00:25:44You seem terrified of him.

00:25:45Of course I'm terrified.

00:25:46His men run the entire East Coast.

00:25:48He could be listening to us right now, Mia.

00:25:49Serena, you're not making sense.

00:25:50Why do you even know so much about him?

00:25:52Who's your dad?

00:25:53Something shifts in her expression.

00:25:55Something serious and old and tired,

00:25:56like she's been waiting for this question

00:25:58and dreading it at the same time.

00:26:00Mia, it's time you know who I am.

00:26:01The door exploding open.

00:26:02A masked man with a gun raised,

00:26:04screaming at everyone to get on the floor.

00:26:05The cafe erupts into chaos.

00:26:07I freeze.

00:26:08I stand in the middle of it all

00:26:10and my body simply refuses to move

00:26:12like it's deciding whether any of this is real.

00:26:14Mia, get down.

00:26:15I can't move.

00:26:17You deaf!

00:26:18I said down!

00:26:19The robber spots me.

00:26:20Move!

00:26:20Why can't I move?

00:26:28For one second, I think it's over.

00:26:31Marco, put it down.

00:26:33Please.

00:26:39I stand there with a stranger's arm around neck

00:26:41and think absurdly about the alley three months ago.

00:26:43About how I peeked my head out

00:26:44and said hello like an idiot.

00:26:46About how that one bad decision

00:26:47led to every bad decision after it.

00:26:49A chain of dominoes I set off

00:26:50the moment I dragged a bleeding cartel king

00:26:52off the pavement.

00:26:52I really shouldn't have saved him.

00:26:54Then the door opens again.

00:26:55Emilio walks in like he has nowhere else to be.

00:26:57Like this is a meeting he scheduled.

00:26:58Gun raised, jaw set,

00:27:00eyes finding me in under a second.

00:27:01Oh yeah?

00:27:02Who's she?

00:27:03The president's wife?

00:27:04Emilio shoots him in the arm.

00:27:05The arm around my throat goes slack.

00:27:07I drop.

00:27:08Serena catches me.

00:27:09No, you're fucking not.

00:27:11I don't see what happens next.

00:27:12The world tilts,

00:27:13goes soft at the edges,

00:27:14and I stop being able to hold myself up.

00:27:16The last thing I feel before I feign

00:27:18is someone lifting me.

00:27:19His arms,

00:27:20his cologne,

00:27:21that particular steadiness

00:27:22that shouldn't feel like safety,

00:27:23but does.

00:27:26I wake up in a bed that isn't mine.

00:27:28It's too big,

00:27:29too soft,

00:27:29smells too expensive.

00:27:30The ceiling is high and unfamiliar,

00:27:32and for a disoriented moment,

00:27:33I have no idea where I am

00:27:34or what year it is.

00:27:35Then I remember the gun,

00:27:37the arm around my throat,

00:27:38the sound of a shot.

00:27:38I sit up too fast.

00:27:40My head swims.

00:27:41Are you okay?

00:27:42He's still in his suit.

00:27:43He's looking at me with an intensity

00:27:44that doesn't belong on a face

00:27:46pretending not to care.

00:27:47I think so.

00:27:48Where am I?

00:27:49My bedroom.

00:27:50Your bedroom?

00:27:51I thought we had separate rooms.

00:27:53You also walked into my meeting

00:27:55in a pair of shorts

00:27:55and asked me to get you pregnant.

00:27:57Rules are flexible.

00:27:59Does that mean I can stay

00:28:00in your room now?

00:28:02Do you want to sleep with me

00:28:03that badly?

00:28:04Yes,

00:28:04says every nerve in my body.

00:28:05Yes,

00:28:06but not for the reason you think,

00:28:07says the part of me

00:28:08that remembers Tomas and Franco

00:28:09and the deadline

00:28:10that is still ticking.

00:28:11What if I say yes?

00:28:13His eyes darken.

00:28:14For one suspended second,

00:28:15I think he's going to close

00:28:16the distance between us,

00:28:17and my heart rate

00:28:18does something embarrassing.

00:28:19He stands instead,

00:28:20adjusts his jacket,

00:28:21Rest.

00:28:22Tomorrow's a big day.

00:28:23What's tomorrow?

00:28:24The engagement party,

00:28:25where I tell the world

00:28:26you're mine.

00:28:27Am I falling for him?

00:28:28No.

00:28:28Focus.

00:28:29Tomas.

00:28:29One month.

00:28:32The next morning,

00:28:33a small army arrives

00:28:34at my door.

00:28:35They work on me

00:28:36for two hours.

00:28:37I sit in the chair

00:28:37and let them,

00:28:38and feel like a doll

00:28:39being dressed for a party

00:28:40I didn't ask to attend,

00:28:41which is,

00:28:42technically,

00:28:43exactly what's happening.

00:28:44I slip out

00:28:45when they're arguing

00:28:45about earrings.

00:28:46Down the hall,

00:28:47through the tall

00:28:47living room windows,

00:28:48I spot Emilio

00:28:49outside with Diego.

00:28:50He's in a sharp suit

00:28:51and he's furious,

00:28:52jaw tight,

00:28:53gesturing hard,

00:28:54words muffled

00:28:54through the glass

00:28:55but unmistakably sharp.

00:28:56He's beautiful

00:28:56when he's angry.

00:28:57I notice this

00:28:58and immediately

00:28:59wish I hadn't.

00:29:02You're gonna tell me

00:29:03why you want my baby

00:29:04and what it'd have

00:29:04to do with Palacio?

00:29:06Who?

00:29:07The man at your apartment.

00:29:08He knows.

00:29:09He's known.

00:29:10The realization lands slowly

00:29:11and then all at once

00:29:12and I think about

00:29:12every moment

00:29:13since he showed up

00:29:14at my door.

00:29:14The conference table,

00:29:15the handkerchief,

00:29:16the drawer full of condoms

00:29:17and understand that

00:29:18he has been pulling

00:29:18at this thread

00:29:19the entire time.

00:29:20I don't know

00:29:21what you're talking about.

00:29:22Do you know

00:29:22what happened

00:29:22to the last person

00:29:23who lied to me?

00:29:25I cut out their tongue

00:29:27and made them eat it.

00:29:28I hate them.

00:29:29I blink hard.

00:29:30He's a monster,

00:29:30I tell myself.

00:29:31Remember that.

00:29:32This isn't over.

00:29:33I know.

00:29:34It's never over.

00:29:35That's the problem.

00:29:38I walk in on Emilio's arm

00:29:40in a dress that cost

00:29:41more than three months

00:29:42of my old salary,

00:29:43diamonds at my throat

00:29:44and I feel like

00:29:44a very convincing fake.

00:29:46Emilio greets people

00:29:47with a smile

00:29:48that doesn't touch his eyes

00:29:49and steers me

00:29:49through the room

00:29:50with a hand

00:29:50at the small of my back

00:29:51that feels like

00:29:52both a claim

00:29:53and a warning.

00:29:54Stay close.

00:29:55Don't talk to anyone.

00:29:56I'm not allowed

00:29:57to talk to people?

00:29:58You've caused enough

00:29:59trouble on your own.

00:30:00That wasn't in the contract.

00:30:01I'm a cartel boss, Mia.

00:30:03The contract won't stop me

00:30:04from doing whatever I want.

00:30:06I don't see Franco

00:30:07until his hand closes

00:30:08around my arm

00:30:09and yanks me

00:30:10into the shadows.

00:30:11Hello, little Mia.

00:30:12You didn't forget our deal?

00:30:14What are you doing here?

00:30:15Emilio invited.

00:30:16We go way back.

00:30:16Emilio invited him.

00:30:18The information sits

00:30:18in my chest like a stone.

00:30:19I think about the look

00:30:20on Emilio's face

00:30:21through the window.

00:30:21Furious.

00:30:22Deliberate.

00:30:23I think about this isn't over.

00:30:24You've been living with him

00:30:25for three weeks, little Mia.

00:30:26Why aren't you pregnant yet?

00:30:35What did you do to her?

00:30:36Nothing.

00:30:37We were just talking.

00:30:38Why don't you ask her?

00:30:40This is her's land

00:30:41between us like a grenade.

00:30:42I watch Emilio's grip loosen,

00:30:44just slightly,

00:30:45just for a moment

00:30:45and see it on his face,

00:30:46the recalculation,

00:30:48the betrayal

00:30:48trying to find its shape.

00:30:49Our eyes meet

00:30:50and I have never felt

00:30:51so exposed in my life.

00:30:53Then Delion is there,

00:30:54murmuring something

00:30:54about engagement photos

00:30:56and Emilio exhale

00:30:57through his teeth

00:30:57and goes.

00:30:58I watch him walk away

00:30:59with his shoulders set

00:31:00and his jaw tight

00:31:01and something aching

00:31:02and hollow opens up

00:31:03in the middle of my chest.

00:31:04You know something's wrong.

00:31:06Tell him yourself

00:31:07before this ends badly.

00:31:08I can't.

00:31:09Under the bright lights

00:31:11of the photo area,

00:31:12Emanio and I stand

00:31:12six inches apart

00:31:13like strangers.

00:31:14The photographer keeps

00:31:16asking us to move closer.

00:31:17We comply in small,

00:31:18miserable increments.

00:31:19Is it that unborable

00:31:20standing next to me?

00:31:21Only when you're mad at me.

00:31:22I'm mad because

00:31:23you're hiding something.

00:31:23I can't.

00:31:24Perfect.

00:31:24Now give each other

00:31:25a little kiss.

00:31:26The silence that follows

00:31:27is approximately

00:31:28a thousand years long.

00:31:29Then Emilio grabs my chin

00:31:31and kisses me.

00:31:31It's not gentle.

00:31:32It's a question with teeth.

00:31:34Demanding and frustrated

00:31:35and searingly humiliatingly

00:31:36effective.

00:31:37The camera flashes

00:31:38go off like a small storm.

00:31:39That was my first kiss.

00:31:41That was my first kiss

00:31:42and he used it

00:31:42like perpuntuation.

00:31:45His mouth was just there.

00:31:47Angry and warm

00:31:48and nothing like I'd imagined

00:31:50and I have absolutely

00:31:51been imagining it

00:31:52and that is a problem

00:31:53I don't have time for

00:31:54right now.

00:31:54He was furious

00:31:55and I still got turned on.

00:31:57What is wrong with me?

00:32:00Did you sleep with him?

00:32:01What?

00:32:02Who?

00:32:02Franco Palagio.

00:32:03Is that what you're hiding?

00:32:03Is that why you wouldn't kiss me?

00:32:04No, I didn't sleep with him!

00:32:06You shoved me away

00:32:06like I was contagious!

00:32:07Because I couldn't breathe!

00:32:07I've never...

00:32:08I haven't...

00:32:08The fury in his expression shifts

00:32:10slowly

00:32:10like a tide going out.

00:32:12It gives way to something

00:32:13quiet and more careful.

00:32:14Breathe through your nose.

00:32:15He presses his lips to mine

00:32:16and this time

00:32:17it's nothing like before.

00:32:18Soft, slow

00:32:19like he's asking

00:32:20instead of taking.

00:32:21Like he has all the time

00:32:22in the world

00:32:22and intends to use it.

00:32:23One more.

00:32:24I don't say no.

00:32:25I don't say anything.

00:32:26He kisses me again,

00:32:27deeper,

00:32:28one hand sliding

00:32:29to the back of my neck

00:32:29and I stop being able

00:32:30to think in anything

00:32:31but sensation.

00:32:32Warmth and the smell

00:32:33of his cologne

00:32:34and the ridiculous

00:32:34inconvenient certainty

00:32:35that I am in

00:32:36very serious trouble.

00:32:37Say yes, ma'am.

00:32:38Yes.

00:32:42Then he stops.

00:32:43Not all at once.

00:32:44He trails his lips

00:32:44down my throat

00:32:45unhurried

00:32:45while I'm still trying

00:32:46to remember what air is for.

00:32:47His hands are at my waist,

00:32:48mine are in his hair.

00:32:49The whole world

00:32:50has narrowed down

00:32:50to this locked bathroom,

00:32:51this basin,

00:32:52his mouth.

00:32:52But I don't think

00:32:53you deserve it yet.

00:32:54What?

00:32:54You're still hiding

00:32:55something from me.

00:32:56You and my worst enemy.

00:32:57I can't tell you.

00:32:58I'm sorry.

00:32:59He drops to his knees

00:32:59in front of me,

00:33:00parting my legs

00:33:01and I barely have time

00:33:02to process what's happening

00:33:04before his mouth is on me

00:33:05and my head snaps back

00:33:06and I forget

00:33:07every coherent thought

00:33:08I've ever had.

00:33:08You'll tell me eventually

00:33:09before it's too late.

00:33:11He's using this against me.

00:33:12I know he's using

00:33:13this against me.

00:33:14I can't make myself care.

00:33:16A security guard

00:33:17threatening to break it down.

00:33:18Promise me

00:33:19you'll tell me the truth

00:33:20or that guard walks in

00:33:21and finds you like this.

00:33:22That's...

00:33:22You can't...

00:33:23That's blackmail.

00:33:24Yes, I promise.

00:33:25I'll tell you everything.

00:33:26Turns back to me,

00:33:28eyes dark.

00:33:29Remember your promise.

00:33:32He leaves.

00:33:33I sit on the basin

00:33:34in the sudden quiet

00:33:35chest heaving,

00:33:36ring glittering on my finger

00:33:37and press my hands

00:33:37to my face.

00:33:39He used pleasure

00:33:39as a weapon

00:33:40and the worst part,

00:33:41the part I can't stop

00:33:42thinking about

00:33:43as I swipe off the basin

00:33:44and fix my lipstick

00:33:44and walk back out

00:33:45into the party

00:33:46is that I would let him

00:33:47do it again.

00:33:50Sleep well?

00:33:52Hmm?

00:33:53You don't look like

00:33:54you slept well.

00:33:54I can arrange

00:33:55a sleep therapist.

00:33:56You used sex

00:33:57to blackrail me?

00:33:58No, I don't need

00:33:59a therapist.

00:33:59I need a cop.

00:34:00You think a cop

00:34:01would help?

00:34:01No, because you're

00:34:02the cartel king

00:34:03and you do

00:34:04whatever you want.

00:34:05Not everything I want.

00:34:07Not when it comes to you.

00:34:08I don't know

00:34:09what to do with that.

00:34:09I look at my hands.

00:34:11I don't like being lied to, Mia.

00:34:12I grew up in this world.

00:34:13Betrayal is the worst

00:34:14sin there is.

00:34:15But I'll wait.

00:34:16Tell me when you're ready.

00:34:17Something in my chest

00:34:18loosens just slightly.

00:34:20The first millimeter

00:34:20of relief in weeks.

00:34:22I'll tell you.

00:34:22At the right time.

00:34:24I need to think it through.

00:34:25That's all I need.

00:34:27I have money.

00:34:28You have peanuts.

00:34:28Buy whatever you want.

00:34:30I'll see you tonight, fiancé.

00:34:32I look up from five credit cards

00:34:33and the ring on my finger

00:34:34and the ghost of his mouth on mine

00:34:35and I think about Tobos

00:34:36and Franco's deadline

00:34:38and the promise I made

00:34:39in a locked bathroom.

00:34:40I'll tell him.

00:34:41At the right time.

00:34:42My phone buzzes.

00:34:43It's a message

00:34:43from an unknown number.

00:34:44A photo.

00:34:45Toas.

00:34:46Beaten.

00:34:46Barely consciousness.

00:34:47A map pin.

00:34:48One line of text.

00:34:49Come alone.

00:34:50I'm running some errands today.

00:34:52You can come along.

00:34:52Let's see how long you last.

00:34:56I know that's what it was.

00:34:58A list of errands Emilio had quietly arranged.

00:35:01A list of things I was supposed to need.

00:35:02A list of reasons to stay close to the house.

00:35:05I ditched them at the corner of 5th and Carriter,

00:35:07slipped into a doorway while they ran past in the wrong direction,

00:35:10and stood there for three whole seconds,

00:35:12feeling like I'd actually won something.

00:35:14The address was a neighborhood that had given up on itself.

00:35:17Cracked pavement, bored windows,

00:35:19a smell like rust and old rain.

00:35:20The building at the end of the block looked like it was held together by habit.

00:35:24I pushed the door open anyway.

00:35:26He needs me, I told myself.

00:35:28He can't hurt me yet.

00:35:29There's no baby.

00:35:31The whole scene arranged like something from a bad movie.

00:35:34Little Mia.

00:35:35Took you long enough.

00:35:36I had to get rid of Emilio's people.

00:35:38I'm not talking about that.

00:35:39I'm talking about why you're not pregnant yet.

00:35:40He looked up when he heard me.

00:35:41My stomach turned.

00:35:42He started pulling one of the women closer,

00:35:44making a show of it,

00:35:46watching my face.

00:35:49When something slammed into the building from the back,

00:35:51a sound like the world rearranging itself.

00:35:59Franco got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air,

00:36:03and he dropped.

00:36:08Emilio stood in the doorway,

00:36:10guns still raised,

00:36:12still smoking.

00:36:13He looked at Franco on the floor for exactly one second.

00:36:17Then he looked at me.

00:36:19You okay?

00:36:20Did he hurt you?

00:36:21I couldn't make words happen.

00:36:22I just shook my head against his chest and kept shaking.

00:36:26Take care of the rest.

00:36:27We're leaving.

00:36:28Then he lifted me.

00:36:29Literally lifted me.

00:36:31And carried me out of that building like I weighed nothing.

00:36:33Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

00:36:35Like he'd been doing it his whole life.

00:36:37Outside, the afternoon light was so ordinary,

00:36:39it almost hurt.

00:36:42I kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold.

00:36:45To remind me that this was a contract and feelings weren't included.

00:36:49He didn't.

00:36:50He just held me against his chest in the back seat while Diego drove and the city slipped past the

00:36:54windows like a film I wasn't part of.

00:36:55He set me on the living room sofa, carefully, gently, and told the staff to leave with a single look.

00:37:01The room emptied in seconds.

00:37:02It was just us, and the afternoon quiet, and the weight of everything that had happened in that filthy room.

00:37:08He threatened my cousin.

00:37:09He wanted me to have your baby so you could use the child as leverage against you.

00:37:13Why didn't you come to me?

00:37:14He said he'd kill Tomas if I did.

00:37:16Your cousin was working with Valadio.

00:37:18He owed him money.

00:37:19They built this trap together.

00:37:21For you.

00:37:22The word together landed like a stone.

00:37:26What?

00:37:27He gambled himself into a grave.

00:37:29Valadio owned him.

00:37:30I stared at my hands.

00:37:32The whole architecture of the pastures rearranged itself in my head.

00:37:35Toa sweeping on my floor.

00:37:36The threats.

00:37:37All of it planned.

00:37:38All of it aimed at me.

00:37:39Sorry isn't gonna cut it.

00:37:43I thought he was going to be cold about it.

00:37:45That's what I braced for.

00:37:47The cartel king voice.

00:37:48The gun on the table voice.

00:37:50That I told you so wrapped in ice.

00:37:52Instead he said something I didn't expect at all.

00:37:55You own me.

00:37:57I dropped meetings to pull you out of that coffee shop.

00:37:59I kissed you at our engagement party when I should have been shaking hands.

00:38:01I couldn't kill you when you lied to my face three times and I tried.

00:38:05I sat there and I tried and I couldn't do it.

00:38:07Don't quote that stupid contract to me when you own me, Mia Espinosa.

00:38:10Body and soul.

00:38:11As much as I own you.

00:38:14Kiss me like you own me.

00:38:16His jaw worked.

00:38:17He said something about not being able to stop once he started.

00:38:20I didn't let him finish.

00:38:21I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to me and for one second he went still with

00:38:25pure shock.

00:38:26And then he took over.

00:38:27Kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months, which I think he had.

00:38:31Yes.

00:38:32Do whatever you want to me.

00:38:34Punish me.

00:38:35Fuck me like you own me.

00:38:36He looked at me for a long moment.

00:38:38Something fierce and half undone in his face.

00:38:42Don't say I didn't warn you, Mia.

00:38:48There's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom.

00:38:51I didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers and his mouth found my neck.

00:38:54And I looked up and saw us.

00:38:56His hands in my hair, my face flushed, his eyes burning into mine through the glass.

00:39:00Look in the mirror.

00:39:02Look how slutty you get from me.

00:39:04I couldn't look away.

00:39:05I'm the only one who gets to see you like this.

00:39:07Do you understand?

00:39:09Yes.

00:39:10Lift your dress.

00:39:11Watch when I take you.

00:39:13What followed I will not describe in detail because there are no adequate words for it.

00:39:17I'll say that every time my eyes dropped, he cupped my chin and brought my gaze back

00:39:21to the mirror.

00:39:22Mine.

00:39:22Every time he said mine.

00:39:24I believed him more completely than I've believed anything in my life.

00:39:27Mine.

00:39:29Mine.

00:39:32Mine.

00:39:33Afterward, we lay in the dark, his arm across my waist, his breath slow and even.

00:39:37I stared at the ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line they

00:39:42can't cross back over.

00:39:43You own me, Mia Espinoza.

00:39:45I pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not to feel how much I wanted that to be true.

00:39:49Don't fall, I told myself.

00:39:51I was already falling.

00:39:54One week later, I came home to flowers.

00:39:57That's not quite accurate.

00:39:58I came home to an abundance of flowers.

00:40:00A proliferation.

00:40:01A situation that had clearly escalated well beyond what any reasonable person would call

00:40:05a floral arrangement.

00:40:06Every surface in the living room held a different vase.

00:40:09The whole space smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while I was out.

00:40:12Standing in the middle of it introducing herself with a warm professional smile was a woman

00:40:15named Ollie.

00:40:17She was in her 30s, polished, very pretty, and she was looking at the door behind me in

00:40:21a way that told me exactly who she was waiting for.

00:40:23Emilio came in 30 seconds later.

00:40:25He stopped, swept his eyes across the flowers, then across me, and something in his face went

00:40:29immediately soft and that way it only does when it's just us.

00:40:31Hello, wife.

00:40:32I missed you.

00:40:34He dropped kisses on my forehead.

00:40:36I held his forearms and forgot for a moment that there was a third person in the room.

00:40:41You must be Mr. Reyes.

00:40:42I'm Ollie.

00:40:43I'm helping Mrs. Reyes with the wedding florets.

00:40:45Emilio looked at all the flowers again.

00:40:47How many flowers does a wedding need?

00:40:50As many as I like.

00:40:51You told me I could have whatever I wanted.

00:40:53He leaned in close, eyes warming.

00:40:56I was thinking of something else entirely when I said that.

00:40:59I shoved his chest.

00:41:01He laughed and pulled me into his side.

00:41:04I didn't notice Ollie's expression yet.

00:41:06I would.

00:41:09The roses were imported from Bulgaria, apparently.

00:41:13Perfect for expressing passion.

00:41:16A good fit for your character, sir.

00:41:18I looked at Emilio.

00:41:19He was looking at me.

00:41:21What do you think?

00:41:22They look pretty.

00:41:23Ollie pivoted to Lily's before I finished the sentence.

00:41:26They opened with just a little attention.

00:41:29And her eyes lingered on Emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking at flowers.

00:41:34They look cheap.

00:41:36Then orchids.

00:41:38High main taintiness.

00:41:39But a man like you can definitely afford to spoil someone.

00:41:43Stop.

00:41:44Both of them looked at me.

00:41:45I know what you're doing.

00:41:48And I don't like it.

00:41:49Ollie gave me a polished, innocent smile.

00:41:53Mrs. Reyes, I assure you...

00:41:54It's Mrs. Reyes.

00:41:56You're flirting with my man.

00:41:58In my house.

00:41:59I don't like that.

00:42:01Emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh.

00:42:03He lowered his mouth to my ear.

00:42:05You're about to become a mob queen.

00:42:07Show her your claws.

00:42:08I turned back to Ollie.

00:42:10You're fired.

00:42:11You heard my wife.

00:42:11Security came.

00:42:13She went.

00:42:15The door closed.

00:42:16Emilio was grinning.

00:42:17You called me your man.

00:42:19Because you are.

00:42:22I told him he was sleeping on the couch.

00:42:24In respect, this was optimistic of me.

00:42:27For what sin exactly?

00:42:28You didn't shut her down.

00:42:30You just stood there.

00:42:32I was looking at you the whole time.

00:42:33I didn't hear a word she said.

00:42:35That's not the point.

00:42:36Couch.

00:42:37I turned to walk away.

00:42:39He caught my wrist.

00:42:40I had about one second of thinking I'd won before he lifted me over his shoulder like

00:42:44I was a bag he was rearranging.

00:42:48I squealed.

00:42:49I couldn't help it.

00:42:50Put me down!

00:42:52You'll be down when I decide you're down.

00:42:54He carried me out of the room while I laughed and hit his back and told him he was ridiculous.

00:42:59He ignored all of it with complete serenity.

00:43:01On the other side of the city, in the abandoned house where Franco had died, Damien moved through

00:43:06the filthy rooms alone.

00:43:07He stopped at the body, crouched down, studied what was left of the man who had been his instrument.

00:43:12He stood up slowly.

00:43:15Coward.

00:43:16He looked around at the decay, the silence, the ruined plan.

00:43:21Then he pulled out his phone.

00:43:24Guess I'm on my own now.

00:43:28The letter appeared with breakfast.

00:43:31Morning, wife.

00:43:32You got a letter.

00:43:34I read the first line and went completely still.

00:43:37It was an admission letter.

00:43:38Nursing school.

00:43:39I never applied for this.

00:43:41I did.

00:43:41He said it casually like it was obvious.

00:43:44Like the most natural thing in the world was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school

00:43:47applications on behalf of a woman he'd coerced into a contract marriage.

00:43:51How did you even know I wanted to go back?

00:43:53He stopped moving.

00:43:54Turned to look at me with an expression I'd never seen on him before.

00:43:58Completely serious.

00:43:59Completely open.

00:44:01The night you saved me, you said you were a nursing school dropout.

00:44:05The storage room.

00:44:06The blood.

00:44:08His voice fading in and out as I pressed gauze to his chest, trying to keep him here.

00:44:14I'm a nursing school dropout.

00:44:16You'll survive.

00:44:18He'd been carrying that for months.

00:44:20I listened to everything you say.

00:44:21He took my hand and kissed the back of it.

00:44:23Told me the semester started on the 18th.

00:44:25Two weeks.

00:44:25He'd arranged bodyguards.

00:44:26I started to object.

00:44:27He said two.

00:44:28Not a convoy.

00:44:29And I let it go.

00:44:30Then I sat very still, looking at the letter.

00:44:32The 18th.

00:44:34My period was late.

00:44:35More than late.

00:44:36I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week, and a cold plerry moved through me.

00:44:41Fast and certain.

00:44:43Bathroom.

00:44:45I was already gone.

00:44:49I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time.

00:44:53The test was in my hand.

00:44:55Two lines, unmistakable, sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world.

00:45:03Pregnant.

00:45:04I pressed my palm flat against my stomach.

00:45:07Nothing felt different yet.

00:45:08The same body, the same skin.

00:45:10But somewhere in there, something had started.

00:45:13Something that was half me and half the man in the kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand

00:45:16and said,

00:45:17I listened to everything you say.

00:45:18The man who had carried me out of that building.

00:45:21Who said you own me and meant it with his whole body.

00:45:23The man I needed to tell.

00:45:25I thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child.

00:45:29The leverage of it.

00:45:30The danger of it.

00:45:31The way a baby becomes a weapon in this world, whether you want it to or not.

00:45:35I thought about Tomos.

00:45:37About all the traps I'd walked into already.

00:45:39And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it.

00:45:43I'm going to be a mother.

00:45:45Emilio is going to be a father.

00:45:47I wiped my face.

00:45:49Stood up.

00:45:50Opened the door.

00:45:51Diego was in the hall.

00:45:53Where's Emilio?

00:45:54Meeting, miss.

00:45:56With Damien.

00:45:57Take me to him.

00:45:58Please.

00:46:00It's important.

00:46:01The boss doesn't like to be disturbed.

00:46:04But something in my face must have convinced him.

00:46:06He nodded.

00:46:09I followed him out.

00:46:10The test folded in my palm.

00:46:12My heart running ahead of my feet.

00:46:17Diego walked me to the study door and left.

00:46:19I could hear voices inside.

00:46:21Emilio and Damien.

00:46:23Low and urgent.

00:46:24I raised my hand to knock and stopped.

00:46:26The test was still in my palm.

00:46:28Two lines.

00:46:29The most important thing I'd ever held.

00:46:31Then Imadio's voice cut through the door.

00:46:33Mia's cousin?

00:46:35He's a fucking clown.

00:46:36My hand dropped.

00:46:38I stood very still.

00:46:39I knew I should walk away.

00:46:41I knew that eavesdropping on the cartel king's private meetings was the kind of thing that

00:46:45ended badly in this world.

00:46:46I pressed my ear to the door anyway.

00:46:49He could have been useful.

00:46:51He's Mia's only blood relative.

00:46:53Tied to Palosio's mob.

00:46:56He was leverage.

00:46:58What the hell is going on with you?

00:47:01I'm just saying, as the East Coast Cartel King, you could play more strategically.

00:47:05Like, not shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:08My blood went cold.

00:47:13I couldn't move.

00:47:15What I have with Mia is none of your fucking business.

00:47:18Damien said something else.

00:47:20Something about fixing things with her.

00:47:22Keeping Tomas alive as a peace offering.

00:47:24But the words were coming through water now, muffled and distant.

00:47:27Shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:31Tomas was dead.

00:47:34Emilio had killed him.

00:47:36My cousin, the only blood family I'd left, the person whose life I'd accepted a mob marriage

00:47:40to save, and Emilio had shot him.

00:47:43While Tomanis was under his roof.

00:47:45While I was sleeping down the hall, thinking I'd kept him safe.

00:47:48Damien said something about the forged will next.

00:47:51Lying about her inheritance just to marry her.

00:47:54A sound at the door.

00:47:56Emilio's voice sharpened.

00:47:58Who's there?

00:48:03I turned and ran.

00:48:06I was packing before I fully decided to pack.

00:48:09The suitcase was open on the bed, and my hands were moving.

00:48:12And the test was still in my fist.

00:48:14I don't know why I kept holding it.

00:48:16And Emilio came through the door, twenty seconds later, face pale.

00:48:20Wait.

00:48:21What are you doing?

00:48:23What does it look like?

00:48:24Mia, let's talk.

00:48:25I don't negotiate with the devil.

00:48:27I tried to pass him.

00:48:29He grabbed my arm.

00:48:30Stop.

00:48:31Let's talk.

00:48:32I jerked free.

00:48:33You lied.

00:48:34You killed my cousin.

00:48:36Then you lied again.

00:48:37There's nothing left to say.

00:48:39He exhaled, sharp and frustrated.

00:48:41Is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal?

00:48:44I stared at him.

00:48:45I waited for a moment to feel shocked, but there was none left.

00:48:47Of course he said that.

00:48:48Of course.

00:48:49He was a criminal boss who ran an empire built on violence,

00:48:51and I had somehow convinced myself that the version of him

00:48:53who kissed my forehead and listened to everything I said was the real one.

00:48:57Does a human life mean anything to you?

00:49:00I'm a criminal boss.

00:49:02You knew that when you signed the contract.

00:49:06Which you forged.

00:49:08My aunt never wanted me to marry you, did she?

00:49:12A long silence.

00:49:14He didn't deny it.

00:49:15You added the marriage clause to trap me.

00:49:18So what?

00:49:19I run a mob.

00:49:21Be grateful I didn't take you by force.

00:49:23The words landed like a slap.

00:49:25Grateful.

00:49:25He wanted me to be grateful.

00:49:27So grateful.

00:49:28Grateful you dragged me into this hell,

00:49:30got my cousin killed, and got me-

00:49:32The test was still in my hand.

00:49:34I looked down at it.

00:49:36The two lines looked back.

00:49:37You'll never know, I thought.

00:49:39You don't deserve to.

00:49:41I zipped the suitcase shut.

00:49:45Just let me go, Emilio.

00:49:47You know I can't.

00:49:48In one motion, I reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip.

00:49:52I had it pressed against myself before I'd thought about what I was doing.

00:49:55The barrel cold against my ribs.

00:49:57My hand shaking, tears running down my face.

00:49:59Mia.

00:50:01His voice had changed completely.

00:50:03All the cold stripped out of it.

00:50:05Either you let me walk out,

00:50:07or I pull this trigger.

00:50:11He went very still.

00:50:13Then he extended his hand, palm up,

00:50:15the way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.

00:50:18Give me the gun,

00:50:19and I'll let you leave.

00:50:21Just like that?

00:50:23Yes.

00:50:24You know I can't say no to you.

00:50:27Just give me the gun, please.

00:50:30The please undid something in my chest.

00:50:33I hated that it did.

00:50:35After a long moment, I laid the gun in his palm.

00:50:39He tucked it away without breaking eye contact.

00:50:41We can fix this.

00:50:42We can pretend none of this happened.

00:50:45I can't pretend.

00:50:47Everything between us was built on lies.

00:50:49He stepped closer.

00:50:51His voice dropped.

00:50:52Thick with something he was fighting to contain.

00:50:54My feelings for you aren't lies.

00:50:56A tear ran down my face.

00:50:58I looked at his face.

00:50:59Really looked at it.

00:51:01This man who had saved me and lied to me and killed my cousin and kissed my forehead in the

00:51:05morning.

00:51:06All of it true at the same time.

00:51:08None of it simple.

00:51:09I took his hand.

00:51:10I placed the ring in his palm.

00:51:12Goodbye, Emilio.

00:51:13He stood frozen, fist closing around the ring, as I walked out the door.

00:51:20I went to Serena's.

00:51:22She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face, and pulled me inside without asking

00:51:28any questions.

00:51:28She made tea.

00:51:30She handed me tissues.

00:51:31She sat with me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left.

00:51:35Then she waited.

00:51:36He killed my cousin.

00:51:40He lied about the inheritance.

00:51:44Everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house.

00:51:49Serena was very quiet.

00:51:50She handed me another tissue.

00:51:55Too quiet.

00:51:58I looked at her.

00:52:00Serena.

00:52:02He killed my cousin.

00:52:03Why aren't you shocked?

00:52:05She couldn't meet my eyes.

00:52:07Serena.

00:52:09Why do you look like you already knew?

00:52:12A long silence.

00:52:13The kind that means the answer is going to change things.

00:52:16I brought Thomas to him.

00:52:18The room tilted.

00:52:20What?

00:52:23My dad is a Mafia Don.

00:52:27I heard the words.

00:52:28I processed them in a very distant, clinical way.

00:52:32The way you process information that is too large to fit into the ordinary world.

00:52:38You lied to me.

00:52:41For five years.

00:52:44I hid it to protect you.

00:52:46So you'd never get dragged into this mob world.

00:52:49But then Emilio showed up and...

00:52:51Did you know he killed my cousin?

00:52:53The silence that followed was the worst silence of my life.

00:52:57Yes.

00:52:59Emilio shot your cousin in front of me.

00:53:01I pulled away from her.

00:53:02She reached for my arm.

00:53:05Mia, please.

00:53:07My family doesn't change who I am, what you mean to me.

00:53:12You sound just like him.

00:53:14I lied to protect you.

00:53:17You watched him die and you didn't tell me?

00:53:21I stood up.

00:53:22She scrambled after me.

00:53:24Saying my name, reaching for my arm.

00:53:26I got to the door.

00:53:28Mia, wait!

00:53:29We're done, Serena.

00:53:30I ran.

00:53:33The street was cold.

00:53:36Serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped.

00:53:40I didn't look back.

00:53:41I just walked.

00:53:42Arms wrapped around myself.

00:53:43No destination.

00:53:44No plan.

00:53:45Just moving because stopping felt like drowning.

00:53:47I thought about my mother, who had died and left me in a world I didn't understand.

00:53:50I thought about Toas, who had sold me to a monster for gambling debts.

00:53:54I thought about the ring I'd left in Emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket

00:53:57and the fact that I was pregnant and alone in the dark with nowhere to go.

00:54:00The city moved around me, indifferent.

00:54:03A car slowed alongside me.

00:54:05I squinted.

00:54:07Emilio?

00:54:08The door opened.

00:54:09Not Emilio.

00:54:10Damien.

00:54:15Relax.

00:54:16I'm not dragging you anywhere.

00:54:18Then what do you want?

00:54:20I have orders to stay with you.

00:54:22But I can take you to a safe house.

00:54:25Emmanuel won't know.

00:54:26He watched my face, patient, almost gentle.

00:54:29I can even get you out of the country.

00:54:34I stared at him.

00:54:35Damien was smiling that easy smile, hands in his pockets, like he was offering him a

00:54:40ride to the airport.

00:54:41Nothing in his face looked wrong.

00:54:42Why would you help me?

00:54:44You're his brother.

00:54:45I'd like to balance out some of the bad I've done.

00:54:47I'll handle your phone.

00:54:49He put a tracker on it.

00:54:50Even works when it's off.

00:54:52I looked down at my phone.

00:54:54Then at him.

00:54:55Then at the dark street, stretching in both directions with nowhere to go.

00:54:59I handed him the phone.

00:55:01He took it, and I climbed into the back seat.

00:55:03I was so tired.

00:55:05I was so tired of being afraid, of running, of trying to stay one step ahead of men with

00:55:09more power than I would ever have.

00:55:11The leather seat was warm.

00:55:13Damien got into the front without speaking.

00:55:15There's water in the back if you need it.

00:55:18I reached for the bottle, opened it, took a long drink.

00:55:22Thank you, Damien.

00:55:23You're a good man.

00:55:25He watched me in the rearview mirror, and something moved across his face that I didn't

00:55:29have time to read.

00:55:32The water tasted like water.

00:55:35That was the last thing I registered clearly.

00:55:37Then the edges of the window started to blur.

00:55:40The streetlights smeared into long yellow streaks.

00:55:43My hand felt very heavy.

00:55:44I looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought, distantly, that something was wrong.

00:55:50What?

00:55:53The thought didn't finish.

00:55:55I slumped sideways, and the world went out like a light.

00:55:59In the front seat, Damien watched me through the mirror.

00:56:03His easy smile had changed into something else entirely.

00:56:07Something that had been waiting behind it all along.

00:56:10Sweet little Mia, you have no idea what's coming.

00:56:13For you, or for my arrogant half-brother.

00:56:20We're on our way.

00:56:21Have the island ready.

00:56:22Outside, the city light slid past and fell behind us, and Emilio's mansion disappeared

00:56:27into the dark.

00:56:28And I was gone before I knew I'd been taken.

00:56:32I woke up to the sound of ocean.

00:56:34That was wrong.

00:56:36I lived in the city.

00:56:37The city didn't sound like that.

00:56:39Steady and vast and indifferent, like breathing from a long way away.

00:56:43I lay still for a moment with my eyes closed, waiting for the world to reassemble itself into

00:56:48something familiar.

00:56:50It didn't.

00:56:50I opened my eyes.

00:56:52An unfamiliar room.

00:56:53Whitewashed walls.

00:56:55Wooden shutters.

00:56:56Light coming in sideways in gold.

00:56:57Not a hotel.

00:56:58Not anywhere I'd ever been.

00:57:00I got up and went to the window.

00:57:03Trees.

00:57:04Ocean.

00:57:05Nothing else in any direction.

00:57:07The door opened behind me.

00:57:08Good.

00:57:09You're awake.

00:57:10I turned around.

00:57:13He was standing in the frame, hands in his pockets, looking pleased with himself in that

00:57:18particular way that meant something had gone exactly according to plan.

00:57:22Where am I?

00:57:23Somewhere no one can find you.

00:57:25Not even my brother.

00:57:27The memory came back all at once.

00:57:30The car.

00:57:31The water.

00:57:32The bottle in my hand.

00:57:33The edges of the window blurring.

00:57:36You kidnapped me.

00:57:37Smart girl.

00:57:39I see why Emilio kept you around.

00:57:42But not smart enough.

00:57:44He moved into the room.

00:57:46And I stepped back until the wall found me.

00:57:52He told me about Palacio.

00:57:55Not the way I'd understood it.

00:57:56Franco is Emilio's enemy, using me as a pawn.

00:57:58Damian had been behind Franco the whole time.

00:58:01He'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check.

00:58:03He'd built the trap, handed Tomas to Franco, and watched the whole thing play out from inside

00:58:07Emilio's house.

00:58:07Franco Palano was a fucking idiot.

00:58:10But he was a useful one, until your cartel king shot him in the head.

00:58:15My cousin died because of you.

00:58:18His expression didn't change.

00:58:20I slapped him.

00:58:21His head snapped sideways.

00:58:23A beat of absolute silence.

00:58:25Then he turned back.

00:58:26And the easy smile was gone.

00:58:28Replaced by something that had always been underneath it.

00:58:32He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall.

00:58:36You're lucky I need you.

00:58:38Or I'd choke the life out of you right now.

00:58:41His eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl.

00:58:44If my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you, there must be something worth exploring.

00:58:49He leaned in.

00:58:52I bit him.

00:58:53Hard.

00:58:56He pulled back with a snarl, and I saw his arm draw back.

00:59:00Don't.

00:59:00Please.

00:59:01I'm pregnant.

00:59:02His fist stopped.

00:59:03The room went very quiet.

00:59:05Demian stared at me.

00:59:06The fury draining out of his face.

00:59:08And being replaced by something more dangerous.

00:59:10Calculation.

00:59:11You're pregnant.

00:59:13With Emilio's baby?

00:59:14I nodded.

00:59:15My throat ached where his hand had been.

00:59:17He stepped back.

00:59:18Then he started laughing.

00:59:20Really laughing.

00:59:21The kind that fills a room.

00:59:22And I stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold, creeping dread.

00:59:26Oh, this is gold.

00:59:27Palami actually pulled it off.

00:59:29I thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous.

00:59:31Emilio would never.

00:59:32Never what?

00:59:32There's a rumor he's infertile.

00:59:34Maybe it's real.

00:59:35Maybe he spread it so women wouldn't chase him.

00:59:37Either way, you and that baby just changed everything.

00:59:39He headed for the door, still grinning.

00:59:42What are you going to do to me?

00:59:43He turned, one hand on the frame.

00:59:46Relax.

00:59:48I was going to let my men have some fun with you.

00:59:51But now, I need that baby unharmed.

00:59:57He told me about the island.

01:00:01Pacific.

01:00:02Private.

01:00:03Surrounded by his army.

01:00:05And buried in the ground all around the house.

01:00:07Explosives.

01:00:08Enough to bring everything down.

01:00:10Triggered by a detonator he kept on his person.

01:00:12If Emilio tries anything, boom.

01:00:15Then he left me there.

01:00:16I slid down the wall and sat on the floor and tried to think.

01:00:21The ocean kept making its vast, inameriant sound outside the shuttered window.

01:00:26You're on a private Pacific island.

01:00:27You're on a private Pacific island.

01:00:28Surrounded by a full army.

01:00:30With bombs underneath you.

01:00:32I pressed both hands flat against my stomach.

01:00:35I'm going to get us out of here.

01:00:37I didn't know if that was true.

01:00:39I said it anyway because someone had to.

01:00:42I thought about the note Emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope.

01:00:46I listened to everything you say.

01:00:48I thought about the way he'd lifted me out of Franco's building like I was something worth carrying.

01:00:53I thought about his fist closing around my ring.

01:00:56Find me, I thought.

01:00:57Please find me.

01:01:00The door stayed closed.

01:01:01The ocean kept breathing.

01:01:03I stayed on the floor and I waited.

01:01:08On the third night, a hand touched my shoulder.

01:01:10I jolted awake, already pulling back, already opening my mouth to scream and a hand covered it.

01:01:15A familiar weight, a familiar smell.

01:01:17Mia, it's me.

01:01:19A voice in my ear, barely a breath.

01:01:21I collapsed into him.

01:01:23He held me for exactly three seconds.

01:01:25His arms around me, his chin on my head, the realness of him solid and overwhelming.

01:01:30And then he pulled back and cupped my face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the warehouse

01:01:34all those months ago.

01:01:36Systematic and frantic at the same time.

01:01:38Are you hurt?

01:01:39No.

01:01:40How did you-

01:01:40Serena.

01:01:41And your mafia princess friend has a helicopter.

01:01:43He pressed his lips to my forehead, quick and fierce.

01:01:46Follow my lead, we're heading to the chopper.

01:01:47Stay close, stay quiet.

01:01:48He had a gun in his hand.

01:01:49He opened the door, checked the corridor, and guided me out into the dark.

01:01:55We made it thirty feet.

01:01:57Damien's voice came from ahead of us, easy and amused, like he'd been waiting.

01:02:02Since when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in?

01:02:06Emilio stopped.

01:02:07Gun raised.

01:02:08Since when do you skip dinner?

01:02:13Damien stepped out of the shadows.

01:02:14In his hand, raised between two fingers like a cigarette, was the detonator.

01:02:21Since the day dad handed you the cartel.

01:02:24His thumb hovered over the button.

01:02:27Emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it, blocking me with his body.

01:02:31Drop the gun, brother.

01:02:36Emilio dropped it.

01:02:38You want the cartel?

01:02:40Fine.

01:02:41I'll give it to you.

01:02:42I don't want the stupid mob.

01:02:43It's you.

01:02:44It's always been you.

01:02:46His voice had broken open, and underneath the ease and the planning and the long, patient game was something rawer.

01:02:52Something that had been sitting in that house for years, growing in the dark.

01:02:55Then take me.

01:02:56Do whatever you want.

01:02:58But let Mia go.

01:02:59Don't drag her into this.

01:03:03It happened in less than a second.

01:03:05Emilio crossing the corridor in two strides, shoulder dropping, crashing into his brother.

01:03:08The detonator flew from Damien's hand.

01:03:10But Damien's smile came back.

01:03:12Colder than before.

01:03:13No.

01:03:15Your offspring isn't getting out today, either.

01:03:18He turned to me.

01:03:20Slowly.

01:03:21And in that moment, nothing in his face was the cartel king.

01:03:23Nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed.

01:03:27He just looked at me like I was the only thing in the room that mattered.

01:03:31You're pregnant.

01:03:33I nodded.

01:03:34His jaw set.

01:03:35He turned back to Damien.

01:03:38Not happening.

01:03:42Then we all die.

01:03:44His thumb moved.

01:03:45Emilio lunged.

01:03:47He of them hit the window behind them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and

01:03:51night air.

01:03:55Emilio!

01:03:58Silence.

01:03:59Then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing, ragged and

01:04:06desperate.

01:04:07I ran for the door.

01:04:10They were both on the ground outside.

01:04:13Unconscious.

01:04:14Not moving.

01:04:16Damien face down in the dirt.

01:04:17Emilio on his back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair.

01:04:23I heard voices.

01:04:24Serena.

01:04:25Marco.

01:04:25Running toward me.

01:04:26I dropped to my knees beside Emilio.

01:04:32Emilio!

01:04:33Emilio!

01:04:33Wake up!

01:04:34We have to go!

01:04:36Mia!

01:04:37Marco was already beside me, hands on Emilio's chest, pressing and counting.

01:04:42I sat there and held Emilio's hand and watched Marco's face and couldn't breathe.

01:04:48Come back.

01:04:50Come back.

01:04:51Come back.

01:04:56Emilio coughed.

01:04:57His chest heaved.

01:04:58His eyes opened.

01:05:01Everyone let out a breath at the same time.

01:05:04I'm okay.

01:05:06We need to move.

01:05:08He started to get up.

01:05:09I helped him, my hands shaking.

01:05:11Chopper's ready!

01:05:11This way!

01:05:13Emilio stood, unsteady, and looked at Damien's limp body.

01:05:19You go ahead.

01:05:21I need to finish him.

01:05:25I'm not leaving you.

01:05:27You want to watch me shoot my own brother?

01:05:30I don't care!

01:05:33You're pregnant, Mia.

01:05:35Go.

01:05:36His voice was gentle but final.

01:05:38The voice that meant he'd already decided.

01:05:40Promise you'll come.

01:05:42I promise.

01:05:43Serena took my arm.

01:05:44I let her pull me away, looking back over my shoulder at Emilio standing over his brother

01:05:48in the dark.

01:05:49He didn't look back at me.

01:05:50He was already somewhere else.

01:05:52Somewhere cold and necessary.

01:05:53He's going to be fine.

01:05:54He's Emilio Reyes.

01:05:56We were 20 yards from the house, then 30.

01:05:59The helicopter was somewhere ahead, its blades beginning to turn.

01:06:02I kept walking.

01:06:03He promised.

01:06:04He promised.

01:06:05He promised.

01:06:08The world turned white.

01:06:10The sound hit me a full second after the light.

01:06:13A wall of pressure and noise that knocked me sideways.

01:06:16Serena's grip tearing loose.

01:06:18I turned around.

01:06:20The house was on fire.

01:06:22Not catching fire.

01:06:23Already fire.

01:06:24Instant and total.

01:06:25A column of flame reaching up into the dark sky.

01:06:28The windows gone.

01:06:29The roof already folding.

01:06:30The air tasted like smoke.

01:06:34I couldn't move.

01:06:35Serena was saying something.

01:06:37Marco was saying something.

01:06:38The helicopter blades were louder now.

01:06:40Someone was pulling at my arm and I couldn't move because Amalio was in that house and he

01:06:45had promised and he was in that house.

01:06:47No!

01:06:48The word came out of me like something being torn out.

01:06:50No!

01:06:51Emilio!

01:06:52Serena had both arms around me from behind holding me back.

01:06:54I fought her.

01:06:55I don't remember deciding to fight her.

01:06:57My body just refused to go anywhere without him.

01:07:00Mia!

01:07:00Let me in there!

01:07:02He's Mia!

01:07:02Stop!

01:07:04Marco was already running back toward the burning house, calling into his radio.

01:07:08I stopped fighting.

01:07:09I just stood there in Serena's arms and watched the fire eat the house and felt the heat on

01:07:14my face and thought about a man in a study saying, I listened to everything you say and

01:07:19a man in a corridor with his shoulder dropping and his body going through glass, going through

01:07:23glass to keep a detonator out of his brother's hand, going through glass for me.

01:07:27The flames climbed higher.

01:07:29The night was orange and black.

01:07:31I pressed both hands over the small life inside me and I waited and I waited and I waited

01:07:37and no one came.

01:07:41Five months later.

01:07:43That's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie.

01:07:46Five months later.

01:07:47A neat jump cut.

01:07:49All the grief and the waiting and the nights I lay awake with one hand on my stomach and

01:07:54the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet, compressed into three words and a hard cut

01:07:58to a woman on a street corner in white gloves.

01:08:01Me.

01:08:02Me.

01:08:02I'm eight months pregnant and I'm wearing white gloves and I'm standing on a sidewalk

01:08:06watching a homeless man run.

01:08:08He thinks he's running from the two cars that boxed him in.

01:08:13He's not.

01:08:14He's running from me.

01:08:16The car door opens.

01:08:18I step out.

01:08:20Damien stops.

01:08:21He looks older.

01:08:23Thinner.

01:08:24Five months on the street will do that.

01:08:26Five months knowing that the woman whose house you burnt out is carrying the air to the

01:08:29Reyes cartel and is looking for you.

01:08:32That will do it too.

01:08:33I pull off one gloves, finger by finger.

01:08:37Hello brother-in-law.

01:08:40My men take him before he can speak.

01:08:44Wait.

01:08:46Mia.

01:08:47We should talk.

01:08:48Yes.

01:08:49We should.

01:08:53The basement of the Reyes mansion is very quiet.

01:08:56I had Diaz repaint it.

01:08:58New lighting.

01:08:59A good chair for me to sit in, positioned at exactly the right distance.

01:09:03I learned from the best after all.

01:09:04I watched Emilio run this house for months.

01:09:06I know how it's done.

01:09:08I sit with my legs rapes crossed and my hands folded over my stomach and I watch two of my

01:09:14men work.

01:09:15Damien screams.

01:09:17He begs.

01:09:18He says my name like it's a password that will open a door, like some part of him still

01:09:22believes I'm the nursing student from the fast food restaurant who cried on a sofa and

01:09:26couldn't look Emilio in the eye.

01:09:27I'm not her anymore.

01:09:29Make this stop, please!

01:09:31Mia!

01:09:32I give the men a look.

01:09:33They hit harder.

01:09:34After a while I raise a hand and they stop.

01:09:37The basement goes quiet, except for Damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of the

01:09:41city outside.

01:09:42I stand up and walk over to him.

01:09:47Tell me where he is.

01:09:49Damien looks up at me through blood.

01:09:52His smile is still there, somehow cracked and terrible.

01:09:56Come closer.

01:09:58I'll tell you.

01:10:01I leaned down.

01:10:03His mouth was near my ear and I stayed perfectly still and waited.

01:10:07He's rotting in hell, just like you will be, you stupid.

01:10:12I straightened up.

01:10:14I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband.

01:10:18The one Diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago, after the first two

01:10:22attempts on my life, after I'd started running this operation alone.

01:10:26And I shot Damien once.

01:10:28He slumped.

01:10:29I stood there for a moment and looked at him.

01:10:32Emilio's brother.

01:10:32The man who had built every trap I'd walked into.

01:10:35The man who had burned down the house with Emilio inside it.

01:10:38Then I peeled off the other glove, folded both of them together, and walked out.

01:10:46Diego was waiting in the Rorto with a package.

01:10:48Mail address to your name, ma'am.

01:10:50He held it out.

01:10:51The label read Mia Espinoza.

01:10:54I frowned.

01:10:55I thought I changed my last name on everything.

01:10:58Could be from before.

01:11:01I took it.

01:11:05I opened it in the study.

01:11:09A file.

01:11:10Legal documents.

01:11:11A will.

01:11:12Notarized.

01:11:13Witness.

01:11:14Dated three months before Leshia died.

01:11:16I read the first page and had to sit down.

01:11:19One hundred million dollars.

01:11:20Her actual inheritance.

01:11:22Not the fabricated claws Amicio had invented to get me into his house.

01:11:25The real thing.

01:11:26The money she'd spent her life accumulating.

01:11:28And had always meant to be to the niece she wrote letters to and called her girl.

01:11:32Where it all started, I thought.

01:11:34Diego stood near the door.

01:11:36Mr. Reyes would have found you regardless of the inheritance.

01:11:43Sounds like him.

01:11:44I turned to the last page, and a small piece of paper fell out.

01:11:48Folded once.

01:11:49The size of a fortune cookie slip.

01:11:50I picked it up.

01:11:51The handwriting was Emilio's.

01:11:53I'd seen it on a hundred things.

01:11:54Notes.

01:11:55Contracts.

01:11:55The margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter.

01:11:58I'd have known it anywhere.

01:11:59It said, love at first sight.

01:12:01I sat there holding that small piece of paper for a long time.

01:12:04Then I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes.

01:12:07I'll find you, Emilio Reyes.

01:12:09Wherever you are.

01:12:12He was in Sicily.

01:12:14I didn't know that yet.

01:12:15I knew it the way you know things when you've been running someone's empire for five months

01:12:19and you've learned to read Diego's face.

01:12:21There was somewhere he wouldn't look.

01:12:23Some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression.

01:12:27But he wouldn't tell me.

01:12:29And I understood why.

01:12:31Emilio had told him not to.

01:12:33So I waited.

01:12:34On a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean.

01:12:39He'd been watching it for weeks.

01:12:41The light changed.

01:12:43The water changed.

01:12:44He watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go anywhere until they're ready.

01:12:50Serena flew to Sicily on a Tuesday.

01:12:52She found him on the balcony, thinner than she'd left him,

01:12:55the ocean wind moving through his hair.

01:12:58She dropped a photograph on his lap without greeting him first.

01:13:01In the photo, Damien.

01:13:03Dead.

01:13:04Emilio picked up the photo, looked at it for a long moment.

01:13:07That's my girl.

01:13:11She's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth.

01:13:15I can't see her like this.

01:13:17You could show up as a worm and she'd still love you.

01:13:20I'm tired of lying to my best friend.

01:13:22Again.

01:13:24She'll forgive you.

01:13:26Serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair.

01:13:29The Mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon, almost violet at the edges.

01:13:35Come back with me tomorrow.

01:13:36I'm flying out in the morning.

01:13:37No.

01:13:39Emilio.

01:13:40I'll return when I can stand on my own feet.

01:13:43I want her to know I'm still the man who can protect her.

01:13:46And our baby.

01:13:47Serena stared at him for a long moment.

01:13:50Toxic masculinity from a cartel king.

01:13:52Who would have thought?

01:13:53A beat.

01:13:54You know, you're kind of cute in a wheelchair.

01:13:56Don't let your bodyguard hear that.

01:13:58He helps me to the bathroom.

01:14:00Serena laughed.

01:14:01A real laugh.

01:14:02Surprised out of her.

01:14:03She stood up and kissed the top of his head.

01:14:05Don't take too long.

01:14:07She walked out.

01:14:09Emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone.

01:14:14He reached into his pocket.

01:14:16The ring was small and cold and familiar.

01:14:20Mia's engagement ring.

01:14:21The one she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from.

01:14:25He'd been carrying it since that night.

01:14:27Through the crash.

01:14:28Through the window.

01:14:29Through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember.

01:14:31Through the months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea.

01:14:35He turned it in his fingers.

01:14:36He thought about the night in the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement and seen a woman he'd

01:14:40never met pressing gons to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd bleed more.

01:14:43He'd been half dead and delirious and he thought, I know you.

01:14:46I don't know you yet, but I know you.

01:14:48Lietia had talked about her for years.

01:14:50Her niece.

01:14:51The nursing student.

01:14:52The girl who sent letters and called every Sunday and had her mother's stubbornness and her own fierce particular kindness.

01:14:58He'd carried the shape of her before he knew her face.

01:15:01He closed his hand around the ring.

01:15:03I'm coming back to you, Mia.

01:15:04The ocean was dark now.

01:15:06The stars were coming out one by one over Sicily.

01:15:10I'm coming back.

01:15:15Two months later, I thought giving birth at home would be easier.

01:15:19I was wrong.

01:15:20It's never easy.

01:15:21I hate you!

01:15:23I hate you, Emilio Reyes!

01:15:25Almost there!

01:15:26One more push!

01:15:27I hate you!

01:15:28I pushed.

01:15:30The world split open and then there was a sound.

01:15:33Small and indignant.

01:15:34And completely certain of itself.

01:15:36And the doctor was saying something I couldn't hear.

01:15:39And someone was crying and I thought it might be me.

01:15:41Ma'am, you need to stay with us.

01:15:43You haven't seen your baby.

01:15:45But I'm just so tired.

01:15:47I was tired in a way I had never been tired before.

01:15:50Down into the marrow.

01:15:50My body suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time.

01:15:54Stay.

01:15:55You have to stay.

01:15:56My eyes closed.

01:15:57Someone said my name.

01:15:58I tried to hold on.

01:16:00Then, at the edge of the light, a silhouette appeared in the doorway.

01:16:04Not Diego.

01:16:05Not Serena.

01:16:06Not a doctor.

01:16:07A silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved.

01:16:14He was standing on his own feet.

01:16:16That was the first thing I registered.

01:16:17Not that he was there, not even that he was alive, but that he was standing.

01:16:20On his own two feet.

01:16:21In the doorway of my hospital room.

01:16:23Wearing clothes I didn't recognize.

01:16:25Thinner than I remembered.

01:16:26With a look on his face that I had no word for.

01:16:28Mia.

01:16:29My name and his voice.

01:16:30I had been so tired.

01:16:31A moment ago the darkness had been pulling me down and I had been letting it because I

01:16:35didn't have anything left to fight with.

01:16:37But my eyes opened.

01:16:39Emilio.

01:16:39He crossed the room.

01:16:41He dropped to his knees beside the bed.

01:16:43He took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

01:16:45I felt him shaking.

01:16:46This man who never shook.

01:16:47Who never showed anything.

01:16:48Who had spent 32 years building a wall around himself and had spent six months tearing it

01:16:51down for me.

01:16:52He was shaking.

01:16:53Somewhere behind him a baby was crying.

01:16:54Our baby.

01:16:55Ours.

01:16:55You came.

01:16:56I told you I was coming back.

01:16:58Outside the hospital window, the city was beginning its ordinary morning, entirely aware

01:17:02that something fundamental had just changed.

01:17:04Inside, I closed my eyes and held onto him and listened to the small, indignant, perfect

01:17:08sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world.

01:17:10We were here.

01:17:11Both of us.

01:17:11Finally.

01:17:15This is what I know now.

01:17:16I know that love is not the clean, safe thing I thought it would be.

01:17:19When I was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life

01:17:23was

01:17:23supposed to become, I thought love would feel like arriving somewhere.

01:17:26I thought it would be warm and certain and uncomplicated.

01:17:30It is none of those things.

01:17:33It is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back room.

01:17:37It is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames.

01:17:42It is five months of running an empire I didn't ask for.

01:17:46Learning the weight of a gun and the patience required to wait for someone who promised to

01:17:50come back.

01:17:51He is not a good man in the simple sense.

01:17:54I know what he runs and what it costs, and I have made my peace with the distance between

01:17:58who he is out there and who he is in this room.

01:18:02Holding our daughter like she is the most fragile and important thing he has ever been handed.

01:18:06He is sitting in the chair beside my bed, and she is asleep on his chest and he is not

01:18:10looking at anything in the room except her.

01:18:12She has his dark eyes.

01:18:14She has, already, even at one day old, a particular expression of absolute conviction that I recognize

01:18:19from watching him walk into rooms.

01:18:21I saved a man in an alley once.

01:18:23I was 22 and afraid and I had no idea what I was saving him into.

01:18:27Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:29I did.

01:18:31I did.

01:18:34I did.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended